Shutter and Door Articles
Exterior Wood Shutters - Notes on Quality
Estate Millwork Estate Grade exterior wood shutters are manufactured from premium hardwoods such as Spanish Cedar, Teak, and Mahogany and can be produced in any non-standard size, with many options such as radius tops, custom sticking, and custom rail and stile widths and placements... More
Why Your House Deserves Real Exterior Wood Shutters
So you have reached the point that you want shutters for your house. You realize that shutters will add to the value and appeal of your home, but you are not sure whether you want real wood shutters, or vinyl, PVC, composite or any other substitute that is out there. Here are some great reasons why you should go with real wood... More
Understanding and Specifying Materials for Custom Wood Doors
Whether you are trying to closely match an existing style of door, or would like to design a door for a special application, there is a wide variety of basic materials and construction methods in practice, each with its own benefits and drawbacks. Wood doors can be made from solid woods, composites, veneers, engineered components or a combination of these. If you are looking for the most traditional and historically accurate style of door, you should specify solid construction for both the frame (rails and stiles), as well as panels... More
Custom Wood Doors -- Notes on Quality
Our Estate Grade doors are the best doors that money can buy. These doors are crafted in the exact same way that doors were made 200 years ago, when aesthetics, strength and durability were the controlling factors. Double tounged feathered tenons in all rails bigger than 8", deep pocket blind mortises, splined glue joints in panels, deep profiles and elaborate sticking are all hallmarks of our doors... More
How a Tree Becomes a Door
Estate Millwork harvests and procures its lumber from only sustainably managed forests. Our hardwood products are harvested in mature forests from stands of timber that can be from 30 to 100 years old. A typical tree will be a 30" diameter oak tree that may be 80 feet tall. First, the forester, who manages the forests, will select an area for harvest, based upon a long term plan. Then, for a given area, the trees and ground will be surveyed and only trees that are culls... More
Green Construction
The Estate Millwork factory is situated in the Allegheny Mountains of western Pennsylvania, a timber rich area which allows us ready access to sustainable forestland. Our employees and management grew up on the land and in the forests of our area, many of us have been farmers, sawyers and lumberjacks before coming "inside" to Estate Millwork. We manage a portion of the timberland that produces domestic hardwoods for our products, and buy all material that we do not produce ourselves from reputable vendors who practice and support sustainability. Our own timberlands are select cut only... More